Samsung considers global Galaxy Note 7 recall: media

PanARMENIAN.Net - Samsung will issue a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone as soon as this weekend after its investigation on explosion claims found batteries were at fault, the Associated Press reports citing South Korea's Yonhap News.

Samsung Electronics refused comment on the report on Friday, September 2. It said it was conducting the inspection with its partners.

"We will share the findings as soon as possible. Samsung is fully committed to providing the highest quality products to our consumers," the company said in a statement.

The company was due to hold a news conference later Friday about the findings of its investigation and plans for the Galaxy Note 7.

Samsung launched the Note 7 on Aug. 19 in some markets, including South Korea and the U.S. Shipments were delayed in South Korea this week for extra quality control testing after reports that batteries of some of the jumbo smartphones exploded while they were being charged.

Citing an unnamed company official, Yonhap said Samsung's investigation has found that faulty batteries have caused phones to catch fire. It said Samsung estimates that the number of Galaxy Note 7 phones with the faulty battery accounts for "less than 0.1 percent" of the products in the market. Samsung is discussing how to resolve the issue with Verizon and its other partners, the official told Yonhap, according to AP.

The Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is the latest iteration of Samsung's Note series that feature a giant screen and a stylus and usually inherit designs and features of the Galaxy S series that debut in the spring. Samsung also added an iris scanner to the Note 7, which lets users unlock the phone by detecting patterns in the eyes.